29
seat at all, its voice must have been drowned out or
ignored by senior m a nagement given the slew of
scandals over the past 10 years.
Thin blue line
If GRC cannot police effectively, then what
persuades the profit makers to act lawfully? Not
much it seem s.
There are many apologists within financial
institutions who say that criminal laws will be
misused and people will be prosecuted for crimes
that they have not com mitted. Granted, there
is always this risk. But society as a whole does
not advocate removing the penalties for murder
because there is a risk that innocent people will be
convicted of those crimes. It is a risk that society
deems essential to take.
Criminal laws with suitable penalties that
require those who work in financial institutions
to avoid fraudulent behaviour and to mitigate the
risks that they might be dealing in the proceeds
Joy Geary is a director of
AML Master, a Melbourne-
based consultancy to the
financial sector on
AML/CTF.
NZ Anti-Money
Laundering/Counter
Financing of
Terrorism master classes
Thursday 28 February
and Friday 1 March.
Two half-day AML/CFT
Implementation Master
Classes in Auckland
outlining everything
members need to know
for when the anti-money
laundering and counter
financing of terrorism
regulations are fully
implemented in New
Zealand this year.
Check the ACI website
for full details.
of crime, aiding corruption and facilitating other
criminal acts, should hold little concern for
directors, chief executives, senior managers and
bankers who are committed to good corporate
conduct.
What is essential, however, is that financial
market participants do fear the second Chinese
curse -- coming to the attention of the authorities
through criminal prosecution -- for the offences
that many of them seem tempted to commit with
monotonous repetition.
If their commitment to good conduct comes
from the personal fear of criminal prosecution for
crimes they might participate in -- rather than a
belief in the value of GRC -- then so be it. That is
of little concern to members of the public. What
does matter is that members of the community and
'financial citizens' -- be they mortgage holders,
superannuation investors or bank depositors -- are
one day able to have confidence in the members of
the global financial sector that they feed. •••